Family
Pratt practiced plural marriage and had 12 wives, 30 children, and 266 grandchildren. In 2011, Pratt's living descendants were estimated to number 30-50,000. His first wife, Thankful Halsey Pratt, died following childbirth in March 1837.
Within two months, Pratt married his second wife, Mary Ann Frost Sterns, a widow. Joseph Smith later condemned "marrying in five or six weeks, or even in two or three months, after the death of their companion." Pratt persuaded Mary Ann to share his bed during his imprisonment in a Richmond, Missouri, jail; but after Pratt began practicing polygamy, they became estranged. Mary Ann finally divorced him in 1853. According to the authors Terry L. Givens and Matthew J. Grow, Pratt was often “dour and humorless,” with an “antisocial bent," and he could be remarkably insensitive in his relationships with his wives.
One of Pratt's grandsons, William King Driggs, was the father of the King Sisters. Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor (2003–2007) and the 2012 Republican nominee for the U.S. presidency is one of Pratt's great-great-grandsons.
One of Pratt's great-great-great-grandsons is Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor and Ambassador to China, and an unsuccessful candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
Read more about this topic: Parley P. Pratt
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